Is Jalen Hudson versatile enough to succeed in the NBA?
Florida’s Jalen Hudson is built like a prototypical NBA wing, standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 190 pounds. He’s also a premier shooter from deep — hitting 40.8 percent this season according kenpom.com. A player like him, able to take advantage of high efficiency catch-and-shoot situations has an undeniable opportunity to thrive in today’s NBA.
However, his ability to counter adds another layer to his potential. Hudson does a great job understanding, recognizing, and reacting to defenders. Not everyone can react to the split second difference between advancing the ball to stay in offense and forcing the defense to collapse or rotate. Hudson excels in this regard.
Hudson sets up his man to over commit by a baby hop and exploits the mistake to go straight down the lane. On the ball, he has a great instinctual feel for where the defender is from both a positioning and balance perspective. Beyond feel, he understands how to position his defender to gain the step advantage.
Leaving a defender chasing from behind forces the defense into strain which Hudson does a strong job of in the play above, taking advantage of and drawing the foul. His free throw rate is 36 percent, an impressive feat for someone who shoots as many outside shots as he does. Volume may be his friend because he only shoots 67.2 percent from the stripe which raises the question if he will be as good of a shooter from 3-point range in the NBA. The other concern with his shooting is that he struggles to consistently make shots in transition.
The extra pass is another form of counter. Jalen Hudson showed flashes of being a creator for teammates but that has waned as the year went on. He only averages 1.1 assists per game (per Basketball-Reference) so he should not be considered a passing threat. That being said, he understands the gravity of his shooting ability.Defenses must respect his shooting ability, forcing teams to over-help and he can recognize a stretched defense to make the extra pass necessary to an open teammate in the corner.
The match up against Cincinnati and Jacob Evans III is a particularly good one to use in analyzing Hudson. The turnover forced by Evans’ help defense is something Hudson has struggled with on a somewhat consistent basis, which raises the concern as to whether he can finish even after beating the first defender. He gets stripped here but overall has a tendency to lose the ball on the way to the rim and in traffic, a major red flag even with the knowledge that he may have more space in the NBA. Evans sets up shop in anticipation of the drive and Hudson tries to draw the foul but really just practices poor ball security.
The NBA’s evolution has clearly steered towards a generation of versatility. Previously, players needed to be great at one part of the game, specialist, to survive and contribute on a team. Without question, Hudson knows how to put the ball in the hoop. However, his ability to do so may be his only great attribute and there should be questions about how well some of his scoring ability will actually translate. Early work starts to show how well some of the different statistics translate but if Hudson is only able to become a catch-and-shoot player providing no other benefit to his team, he might not be worth a high draft pick.
In addition, his defense is so abysmal that his offense will have to be great to save him a spot in the league. He appears lost, confused, and simply in complete disarray. For all that he knows how to exploit on offense, he is the exact opposite twice over on defense. While he does appear disengaged at times (similar to many players), the problem is not exclusively related to effort.
For example, against Clemson he does a decent job with help defense here but in the tandem he commits to a cross court pass, then fails to close out on what was his closeout responsibility. Most NBA offenses predicate themselves on capitalizing on moments where the defense breaks down. The inability to stay in a tandem and recover from defensive missteps in the NBA will leave a player on an island of complete exposure. He has continually struggled on interchanges and plays which rotate or flip the floor which most NBA offenses have some element of even in quick hitters.
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Overall, his consistency has reflected that of the Gators season so far. He can definitely score at an elite level, both shooting and gaining that step advantage to get to the rim but undeniable concerns remain about his defensive ability and do enough on offense to make him viable..